Dhruvi Modi

After the swearing in ceremony of the Ministers in Narendra Modi’s second term as Prime Minister, the portfolios of the Council of Ministers have been announced today. While there are a lot of new faces in the ministry this time, some of the existing ministers have new roles to play for the 17^th Lok Sabha. Here is a list of Union Cabinet for this Lok Sabha, under the Modi government:   

The Ministry of Defence will be under the control of Raj Nath Singh, the former Home Minister.

Incumbent BJP President Amit Shah will be in charge of the Home Ministry. He will be taking over after Raj Nath Singh. He will be holding the number two position in the government, making him the most powerful in the cabinet, after PM Modi.

What Amit Shah As Home Minister Means For Power Equations At Centre https://t.co/gWoajLrzbL #NDTVNewsBeeps #UnionCabinet #CabinetAnnouncement2019 pic.twitter.com/enA3W3qLSy

— NDTV (@ndtv) May 31, 2019

Nitin Gadkari will continue as the Minister of Road Transport and Highways, for the second consecutive term. He is also now the Minister of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises.

Former Chief Minister of Karnataka D.V Sadananda Gowda will be Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers.

Nirmala Sitaraman will have the post of the Minister of Finance, and Minister of Corporate Affairs. She will be taking over from Arun Jaitley, the former Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister. She is also the first ever woman Finance Minister of India, after being the first full time woman Defence Minister from 2017-2019.

Smt Nirmala @nsitharaman assumed the charge as the Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs in New Delhi today. She was greeted in her office by the MOS (Finance & Corporate Affairs ) designate, Shri @ianuragthakur, Finance Secy, Shri S.C. Garg @SecretaryDEA among others. pic.twitter.com/o76RWFuuGm

— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) May 31, 2019

Ramvilas Paswan, eight-time Lok Sabha member, will continue as the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

Narendra Singh Tomar will be Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ welfare, Minister of Rural Development, Minister of Panchayati Raj.

Ravi Shankar Prasad to be Minister of Law and Justice, Minister of Communications, Minister of Electronics and Information technology. This will be his second consecutive term in this Ministry.

Harsimrat Kaul Badal will be continuing as the Minister of Food Processing Industries.  

Thaawar Chand Gehlot will also be retaining the position of the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment.  

Former Foreign Secretary Dr. Subramaniam Jaishankar will be Minister of External Affairs. This is the first time a Foreign Secretary has been given the post of a Cabinet Minister. He will be the successor of the legendary Former External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj.

I am delighted that a first-class professional diplomat will lead the External Affairs Ministry. I have worked closely with @DrSJaishankar over the years &am confident that the conduct of foreign policy will be in capable hands. But we'll miss the personal touch of @SushmaSwaraj.

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 31, 2019

Former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand and first time Cabinet Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ will be the Minister of Human Resource Development, taking over from Prakash Javadekar.

Former Chief Minister of Jharkhand and first time Cabinet Minister Arjun Munda will be the Minister of Tribal Affairs, taking over from Jual Oram.

Smriti Zubin Irani will be the Minister of Women and Child Development and the Minister of Textiles. She has gained more popularity during this election after she won in Amethi against Rahul Gandhi.   

Dr. Harsh Vardhan will be the Minister of Health and Family welfare, Minister of Science and Technology, Minister of Earth Sciences.  

Good to see @drharshvardhan back as Health Minister. Hope to see positive changes in Healthcare soon. One Surprise is Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank as HRD Minister.

— Sumanth Raman (@sumanthraman) May 31, 2019

Former Minister for Human Resource Development, Prakash Javadekar, will be the Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Minister of Information and Broadcasting.  

Piyush Goyal will be retaining his position as the Minister of Railways, and succeeding Suresh Prabhu as the Minister of Commerce and Industry.

Dharmendra Pradhan will be the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, he will be succeeding Birendar Singh as the Minister of Steel.

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi will be continuing as the Minister of Minority Affairs.

First time Cabinet Minister Pralhad Joshi will be the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Minister of Coal, Minister of Mines.

Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey will be the Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, succeeding Dharmendra Pradhan.  

Shiv Sena’s Arvind Sawant will be the Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise.

Former Minister of State for MSMEs, Giriraj Singh, will be the Minister of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries.  

Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will be the Minister of Jal Shakti, the newest Ministry in the Cabinet, as promised by PM Narendra Modi during elections. This ministry will be concentrating on providing people with access to safe drinking water.

This Cabinet of Ministers came as shocking news to everyone, with this being the first Cabinet with a former Foreign Secretary having the post of a Minister. The introduction of the Jal Shakti Ministry is also a very important addition to the Cabinet, which can help ease the water crises across the country. With the addition of new ministers, we also saw the absence of a few prominent ones. The most ‘Milennial’ minister, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Rajvardhan Singh Rathore and Jayant Sinha will not be a part of the 17^th Lok Sabha.